ISLAMABAD – In a first in Pakistan as per the Federal Investigation Agency(FIA), a special court for cybercrime felonies sentenced a man tofive-years of rigorous jail time for posting blasphemous content on socialmedia.
Sajid Ali was indicted for posting “sacrilegious, blasphemous andderogatory material against Hazrat Umar (R.A)” on Facebook in 2017.Originally, the police of Bahawalnagar’s Chishtian tehsil filed a casewhich was later handed over to the FIA Cyber Crime Circle Lahore due tojurisdiction limitations.
The court handed the verdict to the suspect under section 11 of thePrevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 and 298-A of the Pakistan PenalCode which deals with the use of degrading statements against holypersonalities of Islam. Apart from the jail term, a fine of Rs. 20,000 wasimposed on the suspect as well.
The court remarked that the government should conduct an awareness campaignto inform citizens about the cybercrime laws as they were recent.
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The previous government had implemented the Prevention of Electronic CrimesAct 2016 that forbids actions such as sending text messages that criticizereligion, government actions and the armed forces.
